Heat
by turtleducklingg
Summary: Zuko and Katara realise they aren't so different after all. One shot, pro-bending circuit round 2.
**Prompts:**

 **"We're not so different, you and I." (Easy)**

 **The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet. (Hard)**

 **Word count: 1128**

* * *

The heat was stifling.

The Fire Nation, as one may expect of a place located so near the equator, was always warm, but this was extreme. The sun's rays shone relentlessly onto the land and its inhabitants, seeming to absorb any energy and ambition as it did so. Exhaust and sweat hung in the heavy, burning air, making it hard to breathe; hard to do anything, really. It was the type of day to find the coolest place you could and stay there.

Katara was doing exactly that. Unfortunately, the coolest place she could find was underneath a sad looking little tree that barely gave her any shade. The waterbender suddenly wished they hadn't come to take refuge here, in ember island. It wouldn't have been this horribly warm in the air temple, and even if it was, they had rooms to stay in, and right outside her room, there was a fountain full of cool water. The tents they were staying in at ember island didn't do anything to keep the heat out.

Unfortunately, Azula destroyed the air temple, and no amount of bedrooms or fountains could fix that.

Katara sighed. She didn't want to go anywhere with the temperature this high, but staying under her flimsy, nearly-leafless tree was just making her overheat. Fanning herself pointlessly with the warm air, Katara stood up, wondering what she could do to cool down.

The sun beat down on the as she stood, making he frantic to reach a decision. Eventually, the waterbender decided to visit the beach. Now there was only one more question: who to go with?

Aang was having an earthbending lesson, and Toph would probably crush Katara with a boulder if she gave Aang the idea that he could bunk off earthbending in the heat to go to the beach, so neither of them were an option. Sokka and Suki had left to go to town (why the pair would want to walk around town with the sun burning their faces off alluded Katara, but they probably thought of it as a date or something.)

That left Zuko. Despite having forgiven him for his past mistakes, Katara hadn't really interacted with the guy. Before she had forgiven him, she was always on the watch, always examining his actions when he was nearby, always looking for something untrustworthy about him. She supposed that it had become a bit of a habit, to simply watch him instead of talking to him, even though she now knew he was trustworthy.

Now it was time to break the habit. It was time to get to know Zuko. (That is, if he even wanted to visit the beach with her.)

Katara found him laying the steps near the courtyard where he and Aang would practice firebending. Hearing her footsteps, he looked in her direction.

"Hey," he greeted her.

"Hi," she replied, pausing before speaking again. "So, I'm thinking of going to the beach, and I'm just wondering if you're like to come with?"

"Oh, uh, sure." He nodded, slightly surprised that she was inviting him to come along; she had barely talked to him since she forgave him.

"Well... Let's go."

* * *

Katara was slightly regretting her decision to go with Zuko. She knew next to nothing about him, which meant starting a conversation was very difficult. Because of this, they walked down to the beach in awkward silence.

The beach wasn't exactly how Katara had expected it. She was able to see patches of soft, golden sand; shimmering, azure water and all the other cliches of a stereotypical beach, but most of it was covered by the ridiculous amount of people there.

"Ugh, I should've known there would be so many people here." Zuko said, annoyed with himself.

"Well, we came still enjoy the beach, right? C'mon, let's go to the water." Katara began walking towards to water optimistically.

Reaching the ocean, Katara stopped, looking over at Zuko. "Can you surf?"

Zuko almost laughed. "No."

"Do you want to try?"

"Not particularly." Zuko said, earning a raise of Katara's eyebrows. "Do you want to surf?"

"Well, kind of, but I don't want you to be bored."

"No, you can go surfing if you want. I won't be bored." Zuko insisted; he didn't want to ruin Katara's fun.

"Nah, I know something funner than surfing." Katara decided. "Come on."

* * *

Standing at the top of the cliff, Zuko was regretting his decision to come to the beach with Katara.

"You just need to jump." Katara encouraged him. "It's fun."

For some reason, jumping into the sea from on top of a cliff did not seem fun to Zuko. Katara had just done it, doing a somersault when she jumped, and she seemed perfectly happy, but she was a waterbender; She could do crazy stuff like this in the water.

"Go on, I'll use my waterbending to guide you a nice landing. It's completely safe." Katara assured him.

"Fine. But if I die, it's your fault."

Katara just laughed. "On the count of three. One... Two... Three... Jump!"

As he fell through the air, he wondered why the hell he agreed to this.

He wasn't sure how long he stayed in the air, but it suddenly stopped when he hit the water, coldness shooting through his body for the first time that day. Standing up, he realised he was laughing, half in the previous fear that he was going to die, and half in enjoyment.

Katara jumped into the water again, before walking over to Zuko.

"Did you like it?" She inquired hopefully.

"Yeah," he smiled, "I wouldn't do it again though."

KAtara bent the water from their clothes and hair. "Let's sit down."

* * *

Katara was grateful for the ice cream. Although Zuko had a lot of fire nation money, from being the nation's prince, it was still nice of him to buy the icy treat for them both.

"So... How's firebending going?" She asked.

"Oh, it's going well. I was teaching Aang how to do a firebending move, and he said it was like Waterbending."

"Can you show me the move?" Katara requested.

"sure," Zuko demonstrated the move by pulling his hands in an upward motion.

"Huh, that is quite like Waterbending." Katara said, "Isn't it strange that fire and water are opposite elements, but that move is so similar?"

"You know, my uncle created lightning redirection by studying waterbenders."

The pair talked for who-knows-long, conversing about whatever topic came to mind.

"We're not so different, you and I." Katara said thoughtfully.

"No, we're not." He agreed.

* * *

 _AN: Second round is written! I had terrible writer's block for this one, so my writing isn't very good, but writing something is better than writing nothing._

 _I left wrising this till the last few days, but when i was almost done today, the Internet stopped working and it deleted about 1/3 of my writing! So I rewrote it, and clicked save but the internet went out again! So I rewrote it a third time, and luckily it worked._

 _I didn't actually want to write zutara for this one, but as I said, I had writers block, so zutara was just a fallback for something a bit easier for me to write._


End file.
